Bryony Roberts and Mabel O. Wilson in conversation

African-American marching bands have long been powerful agents of cultural and political expression, celebrating collective identities and asserting rights to public space and visibility. With Marching On, Bryony Roberts and Mabel O. Wilson, professors at Columbia University’s GSAPP, collaborate with the Marching Cobras of New York, a Harlem-based after-school drum line and dance team, to explore the legacy of marching and organized forms of performance. Commissioned by Storefront for Art and Architecture, this new project interweaves echoes of the 1917 Silent March against racial violence with references to the revered Harlem Hellfighters in order to celebrate the crucial role of the community's collective performances as acts of both cultural expression and political resistance.

Bryony Roberts and Mabel O. Wilson reflect on Marching On, their performance made in collaboration with the Marching Cobras of New York presented at Marcus Garvey Park on November 11 and 12.

Credits

More about this artist

Related

Roberts and Wilson, commissioned by Storefront, collaborate with Harlem-based after-school drumline and dance team the Marching Cobras of New York to explore the significance of marching as an act of both cultural expression and political resistance.